In general, interpersonal two-way visual communications devices have failed to meet the public acceptance that was expected of them following their introduction. One of the factors that may hinder usage growth is an unnatural component of the user interface of a typical two-way visual communication device. In normal face-to-face conversation, eye contact is considered to be both polite and desirable, and the avoidance of eye contact may be taken as an indication of evasiveness or deception. Because the imaging device in a typical two-way visual communication system is located outside of the viewing area of the local visual display, users making eye contact with the image of the far-end party are actually perceived by the far-end party as avoiding eye contact. The near-end party must overcome the natural tendency to look at the image of the other party, and look almost directly into their own imaging device to be perceived by the far-end party as making eye contact. To view the far-end party, however, they must look away from their own imaging device and look at the visual display showing the image of the far-end party. This forces the user to make the uncomfortable choice to either look at the displayed image of the far-end party and lose eye contact, or make eye contact by looking at the imaging device and not view the distant party. The result is an awkward interaction for those at both ends of the call.
The importance of direct eye contact in visual communication prompted the development of a solution for use by television broadcast news on-air personalities. The teleprompter was invented to permit a news announcer to focus his/her view directly into the lens of a television camera while reading news text. To allow the announcer to read the news, an optical arrangement within the teleprompter passes the image of the news announcer to a television camera, while at the same time displaying to the news announcer an image of the text to be read. The result is that the announcer can view the image of the material to be read, while seeming to keep their eyes focused on the television camera. It works satisfactorily in the broadcast studio, but is a bulky and ill suited solution for interpersonal communication use on a desktop or in connection with other personal computer type applications.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.